The Ice Princess

Returning to her hometown after the funeral of her parents, writer Erica Falck finds a community on the brink of tragedy. The death of her childhood friend, Alex, is just the beginning. Her wrists slashed, her body frozen in an ice cold bath, it seems that she has taken her own life. Erica conceives a memoir about the beautiful but remote Alex, one that will answer questions about their lost friendship. While her interest grows to an obsession, local detective Patrik Hedstrom is following his own suspicions about the case.

The Cold, Cold Ground

Adrian McKinty was born in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland. He studied politics and philosophy at Oxford before moving to America in the early 1990s. Living first in Harlem, he found employment as a construction worker, barman, and bookstore clerk. In 2000 he moved to Denver to become a high school English teacher and it was there that he began writing fiction.

The Hunting Dogs

Seventeen years ago William Wisting led the investigation into one of Norway's most notorious criminal cases, the murder of young Cecilia Linde. When it is discovered that evidence was falsified, he is suspended from duty. It looks like a man has been wrongly convicted, and suddenly the media are baying for blood. Wisting, who has spent his life hunting criminals, is now the hunted.

The Third Girl: Molly Sutton Mysteries, Book 1

Meet Molly Sutton, 38 years old and out of work, who moves to a village in France to recover from the end of her marriage. She's looking for peace, beautiful gardens, and pastry - a slower, safer life than the one she'd been living outside of Boston. But you know what they say about the best intentions.... Molly has barely gotten over jet-lag before she hears about a local student's disappearance. In between getting her old ramshackle house in order and reveling in French food, Molly ends up embroiled in the case, along with the gendarmes of Castillac.

The Vanishing Point

thriller with a nightmare scenario: a parent who loses her child in a bustling international airport. Young Jimmy Higgins is snatched from an airport security checkpoint while his guardian watches helplessly from the glass inspection box. But this is no ordinary abduction, as Jimmy is no ordinary child. His mother was Scarlett, a reality TV star who, dying of cancer and alienated from her unreliable family, entrusted the boy to the person she believed best able to give him a happy, stable life: her ghost writer, Stephanie Harker.

Jar City

Gold Dagger Award winner Arnaldur Indridason’s novels featuring Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson became international sensations on their way to selling millions of copies worldwide. The debut of morose detective Sveinsson finds the inspector and his team delving into the murder of a retiree with horrifying secrets.

The Magician's Assistant

When Parsifal, a handsome and charming magician, dies suddenly, his widow Sabine - who was also his faithful assistant for 20 years - learns that the family he claimed to have lost in a tragic accident is very much alive and well.

The Tears of Dark Water

Daniel and Vanessa Parker are an American success story. He is a Washington, DC power broker, and she is a doctor with a thriving practice. But behind the facade, their marriage is a shambles, and their teenage son, Quentin, is self-destructing. In desperation, Daniel dusts off a long-delayed dream - a sailing trip around the world. Little does he know that the voyage he hopes will save them may destroy them instead.

Cell 8

Convicted of brutally murdering his girlfriend, seventeen-year-old John Meyer Frey marks time in an Ohio maximum security prison, awaiting execution. For nearly a decade, the victim’s father has hungered for Frey’s death, while a prison guard is torn by compassion for the young man. When Frey unexpectedly dies of heart disease before he either receives his just punishment or achieves redemption, the wheels of justice grind to a halt.

Bruno, Chief of Police

Bruno is a former soldier who has embraced the pleasures and slow rhythms of country life - living in his restored shepherd's cottage; patronizing the weekly market; sparring with, and basically ignoring, the European Union bureaucrats from Brussels. He has a gun but never wears it; he has the power to arrest but never uses it. But then the murder of an elderly North African who fought in the French army changes everything and galvanizes Bruno's attention.

Multiple Exposure: Sophie Medina, Book 1

From the author of the "lively and spirited" (Providence Journal) Wine Country Mysteries comes the first in a new series featuring a savvy female photographer whose husband's abduction embroils her in the world of international espionage and lost Romanov art treasures. Weaving together political intrigue, art history, and espionage, this fast-paced story marks the start of a promising new series.

The Bronze Horseman

The golden skies, the translucent twilight, the white nights all hold the promise of youth, of love, of eternal renewal. The war has not yet touched this city of fallen grandeur or the lives of two sisters, Tatiana and Dasha Metanova, who share a single room in a cramped apartment with their brother and parents. Their world is turned upside down when Hitler's armies attack Russia and begin their unstoppable blitz to Leningrad.

Sleep Tight

FBI agent Mary Cantrell has been called to Minneapolis to hunt down a killer. It's shaking her to the core, and reviving dreadful memories. Years ago, her best friend was murdered. Now the man convicted of the crime, Gavin Hitchcock, is free, and Mary's own sister Gillian, a local cop, has befriended him. As each clue leads them closer to Hitchcock, Mary and Gillian set themselves up as the perfect target - and the perfect trap.

A Tapping at My Door

From the best-selling author of Cry Baby, the beginning of a brilliant and gripping police procedural series set in Liverpool, perfect for fans of Peter James and Mark Billingham. A woman at home in Liverpool is disturbed by a persistent tapping at her back door. She's disturbed to discover the culprit is a raven and tries to shoo it away. Which is when the killer strikes. DS Nathan Cody, still bearing the scars of an undercover mission that went horrifyingly wrong, is put on the case.

The Andromeda Strain

The United States government is given a warning by the preeminent biophysicists in the country: current sterilization procedures applied to returning space probes may be inadequate to guarantee uncontaminated re-entry to the atmosphere.

The Invisible Guardian

When the naked body of a teenage girl is found on a riverbank in Basque Country, Spain, homicide inspector Amaia Salazar must return to the hometown she always sought to escape. A dark secret from Amaia's past plagues her with nightmares, and as her investigation deepens, the old pagan beliefs of the community threaten to derail her astute detective work. The lines between mythology and reality begin to blur, and Amaia must discover whether the crimes are the work of a ritualistic killer or of a mythical creature known as the Basajaun, the Invisible Guardian.

Terms of Use

Circles is the most popular social network in the world: vast, ubiquitous, and constantly evolving. Days before expanding into China, Circles suffers a devastating cyberattack - and a key executive is brutally murdered. As he fights to save the company he helped build, top engineer Sergio Mansour uncovers evidence of a massive conspiracy that turns the power of Circles against its users. But as Sergio investigates, someone is watching his every move - someone ruthless enough to brand him a criminal and set a vicious hit man on his trail.

Blood Defense

Samantha Brinkman, an ambitious, hard-charging Los Angeles criminal defense attorney, is struggling to make a name for herself and to drag her fledgling practice into the big leagues. Sam lands a high-profile double-murder case in which one of the victims is a beloved TV star - and the defendant is a decorated veteran LAPD detective. It promises to be exactly the kind of media sensation that would establish her as a heavy hitter in the world of criminal law.

Last Prophecy of Rome: Myles Munro, Book 1 (Prequel)

Rome: maverick military historian Myles Munro is on holiday with girlfriend and journalist Helen Bridle. He's convinced a bomb is about to be detonated at the American embassy. New York: a delivery van hurtling through Wall Street blows up, showering the sky with a chilling message: America is about to be brought down like the Roman Empire.

The Traitor's Story

When fifteen-year-old American Hailey Portman goes missing in Switzerland, her desperate parents seek the help of their neighbor, Finn Harrington, a seemingly quiet historian rumored to be a former spy. Sensing the story runs deeper than anyone yet knows, Finn reluctantly agrees to make some enquiries. He has little to go on other than his instincts, and his instincts have been wrong in the past - sometimes spectacularly wrong.

The Coroner’s Lunch: The Dr. Siri Investigations, Book 1

Laos, 1975: The Communist Pathet Lao has taken over this former French colony. Dr. Siri Paiboun, a 72-year-old Paris-trained doctor, is appointed national coroner. Although he has no training for the job, there is no one else: the rest of the educated class have fled.

Run

Since their mother's death, Tip and Teddy Doyle have been raised by their loving, possessive, and ambitious father. As the former mayor of Boston, Bernard Doyle wants to see his sons in politics, a dream the boys have never shared. But when an argument in a blinding New England snowstorm inadvertently causes an accident that involves a stranger and her child, all Bernard Doyle cares about is his ability to keep his children, all of his children, safe.

Those We Left Behind: The Belfast Novels

Blood has always been thicker than water for two Northern Irish brothers caught in the Belfast foster system, but a debt of past violence will be paid not just by them but also by those they left behind. Ciaran Devine, who made Belfast headlines seven years ago as the "schoolboy killer", is about to walk free. At the age of 12, he confessed to the brutal murder of his foster father; his testimony mitigated the sentence of his older brother, Thomas, who was also found at the crime scene, covered in blood.

Dry Bones

What happened to Jacques Gaillard? The brilliant teacher at the École Nationale d’Administration, who trained some of France’s best and brightest as future prime ministers and presidents, vanished ten years ago, presumably from Paris. This ten-year-old mystery inspires a bet—one that Enzo Macleod, a biologist teaching in Toulouse, France, instead of pursuing a brilliant career in forensics back home in Scotland, can ill afford to lose.

Audible Editor Reviews

Editors Select, January 2013 - With a title like that how can you not be intrigued? Already an international bestseller, Neuhaus's US debut has garnered plenty of pre-release buzz for taking well-worn mystery staples (cold case, small town, unfriendly populace) and artfully weaving them together into something altogether fresh, with a story that keeps readers on their toes till the end. Michael, Audible Editor

Publisher's Summary

On a rainy November day, police detectives Pia Kirchhoff and Oliver von Bodenstein are summoned to a mysterious traffic accident: a woman has fallen from a pedestrian bridge onto a car driving underneath. According to a witness, the woman may have been pushed. The investigation leads Pia and Oliver to a small village, and the home of the victim, Rita Cramer.

On a September evening eleven years earlier, two seventeen-year-old girls vanished from the village without a trace. In a trial based only on circumstantial evidence, twenty-year-old Tobias Sartorius, Rita Cramer's son, was sentenced to ten years in prison. Bodenstein and Kirchhoff discover that Tobias, after serving his sentence, has now returned to his home town. Did the attack on his mother have something to do with his return? In the village, Pia and Oliver encounter a wall of silence. When another young girl disappears, the events of the past seem to be repeating themselves in a disastrous manner. The investigation turns into a race against time, because for the villagers it is soon clear who the perpetrator is - and this time they are determined to take matters into their own hands.

No. I found myself wishing the book would JUST end. It was interminable. When the book got to nearing the end of the first part, at that point I wasn't able to conceive how it would continue another 7 or so hours. Unlikeable characters, truly ridiculous story. Just when the author makes one think it's solved, he throws in another wrench and I found myself saying, "Just stop." I can suspend some disbelief, but this book went way beyond that. Semi-SPOILER: So really, an entire town is corrupt and evil? No one in the town has a conscience or moral compass? And is the reader really supposed to believe that the crimes were all forgotten and that the numerous people involved all kept these secrets for 11 years?

What do you think your next listen will be?

"14" by Peter Clines

What does Robert Fass bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He really was wonderful and if it hadn't been for him I wouldn't have finished it at all.

Did Snow White Must Die inspire you to do anything?

Not read/listen to, another book by this author.

Any additional comments?

I guess just this is a case of "to each his own." Obviously many, many people enjoyed this book, but I'm not one of them. I enjoy Michael Connelly, Lee Child (not A Wanted Man), John Connolly, Don Winslow, Lincoln Child and John Sanford - maybe if you're reading this and you love those authors too, you will feel the same about this book as I do.

I'll admit that I was really pulled in by the title and a couple of 5 star reviews. I thought "they loved it--I probably will too." But, no, try as I wanted - I barely liked it.

Maybe the problem was the translation, as this is by a German author. Or maybe the narrator, who I found to be very weak overall. I want to give an honest and fair review, so here goes:

The main character, Tobias, is framed for murder and imprisoned for 10 years. Upon his release, he returns to his home town, where almost everyone hates him, and the townsfolk have kind of taken out their anger at his family. Tobias is determined to stay put and help rebuild his life-- but someone isn't happy about it.

The big question is--who framed him and who is trying to get him to leave? There are so many suspects and so many developing story lines, that nothing ever really takes hold. The author throws new twists and turns into each and every sub-plot - it makes it impossible to really care about any of the characters- even the one's who were murdered.

I like to try and figure out "who done it" as I read along in a mystery novel. This one, however, doesn't give the reader any real information to try and develop an answer. Toward the end, new information is brought up which the reader never could have guessed at--so I felt like it was unfair. If you have ever read a mystery where there is suspect 1,2, and 3 all along, and then at the end it is solved with suspect 4--you know what I mean.

The book did have a storyline with a lot of potential--I just felt the author missed an opportunity to make it a real thriller.

After all the awards and write-ups I thought this was going to be very good -- it wasn't. Very slow paced and dull. Too many people, too much detail. I kept wishing a good editor would red line most of it. Don't waste your time or money on this.

You could pick worse...some comfortable hallmarks of an entertaining mystery: nice atmospheric setting, good diverse collection of townsfolk (Miss Scarlett, Colonel Mustard, Prof. Plum, Norman Bates...), plenty of motives and secrets, and a likable, handsome, much maligned central character, Tobias...the only character you know is innocent. After a slightly slow beginning, the story builds a bit, but ultimately breaks off into too many irrelevant splinter stories to gain forward momentum; I would get one subplot straight and here would come another, than another, and another--like herding cats. I wouldn't say this is a winner, nor a loser--more of a strong stand in the middle of the moving herd. (And it's a read without too much violence or strong language.)

In fairness ... Neuhaus is a German writer known for her crime novels. This version of Snow White Must Die is translated into English from the author's native German language, and is the 4th of 6 books in the *Bodenstein/Kirchoff series* (a He and She team of police inspectors). So, we have a translated book, lifted out of choronlogical order. I'm no polyglot, only roughly bilingual, but I have read a few books in both the original language and the translated version, and it's true--sometimes things are lost in translation. I probably will read the next translated book in this series--with the hope that the publishers didn't lift this volume (SWMD) out of order because it was the strongest of the six.

Great pysch thriller! Poor Toby's been dealt a bad hand, but when he gets out of prison for two murders he doesn't remember committing, he expects to be able to start anew. Sorry to say, that's not going to happen...not when another girl ends up dead in this tiny town in Germany, and everyone assumes he's the guilty party. Small town thinking and small town secrets play large in this thriller, and you really can't wait to get to the end. I love Robert Fass' narration, and he does a great job on this police procedural. I don't want to say more and spoil it for anyone . . . !

Probably not. The translation from German to English included an odd combination of German proper names mixed with American slang (e.g. repeatedly referring to prison as "the joint"). This was somewhat annoying, and hurt the flow of the narration. The book itself was surprisingly boring. I liked the concept, but too predictable in many spots.

For starters how did the main character get convicted when they never found the bodies of the two teenage girls he supposedly killed? Not to mention no one had any idea where these hypothetical murders occurred. I realize that this was set in Germany but I still couldn't get past the lack of evidence that put him away for two years to set up this entire story. Without a body isn't difficult to prove somebody is no longer alive? Let alone that they were murdered.Beyond that it never got a whole lot better. There were a lot of twists but they never felt clever because it wasn't believable on so many different levels.

I knew nothing about this book before.. but when i saw this awesome title I couldn't resist. I read couple of mystery books before and most of them were a bit predictable.. Not this one, every action went completely different than what I have expected, and I loved the book for that.

During the whole book I was one my toes waiting to know what happened and what will happen, rarely you get such a feeling and anticipation while reading some of the current mystery books here and there.

I wish the book was a bit longer, and I hope that her earlier 3 books will be available soon here in audible, as they were a great success too.

In the dialogue of some characters hyperbolic statements are made, like, "You are the only person who could have prevented..., so you are completely responsible for ...", when in fact that person is NOT the only person who could have prevented whatever. This happens more than once and it is usually in police interrogations. Maybe it is meant as a tactic, but it comes of as loose writing.

Would you be willing to try another book from Nele Neuhaus? Why or why not?

I don't think so. The writer is German, but this is a generic mystery - could have happened anywhere. I like mysteries where the geography is important to the plot or the main characters.

What does Robert Fass bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He pronounces the German names (for people and towns and streets) really well - not that I would actually know.

Do you think Snow White Must Die needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No. It really ran its course. Possibly another book in a series about the police detectives, but this story can go no further.

No the style of writing and story telling remind me a lot of the girls the Dragon tattoo series

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Would've been more enjoyable if there were less characters and focus more on the main characters involved in the plot and on the character development rather than all these long drawn out back stories and all these characters names that just make the whole plot convoluted and unnecessarily complicated.

What about Robert Fass’s performance did you like?

I think he portrayed the voices of the characters well when he switched from character to character you already knew who they were even if the name didn't come up. He also portrayed the emotion the characters were going to really well

Do you think Snow White Must Die needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Yes and no I feel like you need one more chapter to explain what happens to the main characters not the 2 detectives but the two main characters involved in the crime.

Any additional comments?

This really reminded me a lot of the girl with the Dragon tattoo it takes a long time to get going but when it does becomes very interesting. too many characters to keep track of, too many back stories to remember and then you don't get enough emotion or character development and even though you do become invested in the main characters it doesn't pay off in the end because she focuses mainly on the two detectives and leaves the other main characters that you've come to care about to the side. Also too many motives everybody goes down and becomes too convoluted spoiler alert whole town involved in a cover up. I did like how she did describe emotional parts and the characters the way that she describes them you really can pictured in your head what they're going through what they're feeling.